Fire at a Russian Oil Depot as Russia and Ukraine Exchange Drone Attacks

Firefighters extinguish oil tanks at a storage facility that local authorities say caught fire after the military brought down a Ukrainian drone, in the town of Klintsy in the Bryansk Region, Russia January 19, 2024, in this still image taken from video. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Firefighters extinguish oil tanks at a storage facility that local authorities say caught fire after the military brought down a Ukrainian drone, in the town of Klintsy in the Bryansk Region, Russia January 19, 2024, in this still image taken from video. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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Fire at a Russian Oil Depot as Russia and Ukraine Exchange Drone Attacks

Firefighters extinguish oil tanks at a storage facility that local authorities say caught fire after the military brought down a Ukrainian drone, in the town of Klintsy in the Bryansk Region, Russia January 19, 2024, in this still image taken from video. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Firefighters extinguish oil tanks at a storage facility that local authorities say caught fire after the military brought down a Ukrainian drone, in the town of Klintsy in the Bryansk Region, Russia January 19, 2024, in this still image taken from video. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

An oil depot caught fire in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region Saturday following a Ukrainian drone attack in the early hours, local officials said, in the latest long-range strike by Kyiv’s forces on a border region.
Ukraine has in recent months stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine. Moscow’s army is pressing hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where a shortage of troops and ammunition in the third year of war has made defenders vulnerable, The Associated press said.
Rostov regional Gov. Vasily Golubev said a drone attack had caused a blaze spanning 200 square meters (2,100 square feet), but there were no casualties. Some five hours after he reported the fire on Telegram, Golubev said the fire had been extinguished.
In addition to two drones being intercepted over the Rostov region, Russian air defense systems overnight destroyed two drones over the country’s western Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Saturday.
Ukraine’s air defenses, meanwhile, intercepted four of the five drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday morning. Mykola Oleschuk, commander of Ukraine’s Air Forces, said the fifth drone left Ukrainian airspace in the direction of Belarus.
In other developments, Vadym Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the partly occupied eastern Donetsk region, said Saturday that Russian attacks on Friday had killed six people and wounded a further 22.
Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region that is also partly occupied, said Saturday that one person had been killed and six wounded as a result of Russian shelling over the previous day.



Iran’s New President Reappoints UN-Sanctioned Official as Head of the Country’s Nuclear Agency

Head of Iran's atomic energy department Mohammad Eslami speaks during his joint press conference with International Atomic Energy Organization, IAEA, Director General Rafael Grossi after their meeting in the central city of Isfahan, Iran, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP)
Head of Iran's atomic energy department Mohammad Eslami speaks during his joint press conference with International Atomic Energy Organization, IAEA, Director General Rafael Grossi after their meeting in the central city of Isfahan, Iran, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP)
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Iran’s New President Reappoints UN-Sanctioned Official as Head of the Country’s Nuclear Agency

Head of Iran's atomic energy department Mohammad Eslami speaks during his joint press conference with International Atomic Energy Organization, IAEA, Director General Rafael Grossi after their meeting in the central city of Isfahan, Iran, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP)
Head of Iran's atomic energy department Mohammad Eslami speaks during his joint press conference with International Atomic Energy Organization, IAEA, Director General Rafael Grossi after their meeting in the central city of Isfahan, Iran, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP)

Iran’s newly-elected president reappointed a US-educated official who came under United Nations sanctions 16 years ago as head of the country’s nuclear department, state TV reported Saturday.

Mohammad Eslami, 67, will continue his work as chief of Iran's civilian nuclear program and serve as one of several vice presidents. Eslami's reappointment by President Masoud Pezeshkian comes as Iran remains under heavy sanctions by the West following the collapse of the 2015 deal that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Pezeshkian had said during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear deal.

The United Nations sanctioned Eslami in 2008 for “being engaged in, directly associated with or providing support for Iran’s proliferation of sensitive nuclear activities or for the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems”, when he was the head of Iran’s Defense Industries Training and Research Institute.

He was appointed as the chief of Iran’s nuclear department for the first time by late President Ebrahim Raisi in 2021, before that, from 2018, in moderate former President Hassan Rouhani’s era, Eslami served as Transport and Urban Development Minister.

He has experience working in Iran’s military industries, for years, most recently as deputy defense minister responsible for research and industry.

Eslami holds degrees in civil engineering from Detroit University of Michigan and the University of Toledo, Ohio.

The US, France, Britain and Germany accused Iran of escalating its nuclear activities far beyond limits it agreed to in the 2015 deal and of failing to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran accused the US and its allies of continuing to apply economic sanctions that were supposed to be lifted under the deal, and insisted its nuclear program is peaceful and geared towards generating electricity and producing radioisotopes to treat cancer patients and remains under constant oversight by the IAEA.

Iran is building two nuclear power facilities to supplement its sole operational 1,000-megawatt reactor at the southern port town of Bushehr, which went online with Russia’s help in 2011. Under its long-term energy plan, Iran aims to reach 20,000-megawatt nuclear electric capacity.

The nation has in recent months faced country-wide power outages.